The Sound Walk September (SWS) Awards celebrate the skills of those composing audio, listening, and sound walks. Winners get awarded with cash prizes of up to 1000 euros.
A sound walk, or walking piece, is any walk that focuses on listening to the environment, with, or without, use of technology, or adds to the experience through the use of sound or voice. This can include a scripted or choreographed score or work that has additional audio elements.
The SWS Awards are open to everyone; creatives, artists, sound artists, musicians, poets, architects, performers, designers, anthropologists, writers, health and wellness professionals, cultural and social professionals, educators, teachers, students, and those interested to explore the impact and possibilities of sound walking.
Any sound walk submitted to the walk · listen · create website, is eligible. From the SWS24 Awards onwards, pieces have to be created in the current, or previous year. So, for SWS24, pieces created in 2023 and 2024 are eligible.
Did you create a fantastic walking piece that’s not a sound walk? We’ve got you covered, fam. Submit your work to the Marŝarto Awards.
Work can include a variety of formats, approaches, and subjects, from a wide range of creative disciplines, including arts, heritage and history, health and wellbeing, social practices, journalism, performance, literature and theatre, ecology, tourism, and more.
SWS Awards 2024
The original award discovering the best soundwalks from all over the world.
Up to €1000 for first prize!
The selection process
From the body of submitted work, an Online Jury abstracts a short-list of sound walks, which is announced soon after the end of September. From this shortlist, the Grand Jury chooses the winners of the Sound Walk September Awards, based on a collaboratively defined set of criteria.
From 2024 onwards, the general public, you, also play a role in the selection process; the submission with the largest number of hearts (likes), which is not already selected by the Online Jury for inclusion in the shortlist, is also included in the shortlist. So, vote for your favourite sound walk to make sure they make it to the shortlist.
What do winners get?
Soundwalks that make it to the shortlist get bragging rights. Winners and honourable mentions receive a physical award. In addition, winners receive a cash prize of 500 euros, honourable mentions receive a cash prize of 200 euros.
We facilitate a membership program, which operates like a crowdfunding campaign. When we reach certain thresholds in support, the cash prize for winners can grow to 1000 euros, with the cash prize for honourable mentions can grow to 400 euros.
Check out our membership program today.
Previous winners and honourable mentions
Curious about previous winners? Check out who walked away with prizes in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023.
How to submit
Check out our archives, where you will find a ‘Submit’ button, or head over to the submission form straight away.
Need more? Read the FAQ.
You will need to register and log in to submit.
Declaration on submission
Entrants declare that the work submitted is their own and that its rights have not been transferred to third parties. Entrants assume all liability for any claim or demand by third parties, administrative, judicial or of other nature, concerning intellectual property or rights of the submitted work. Submission implies that entrants hold all necessary rights to perform and publish the entered work, and are authorized to grant and does grant said rights to walk · listen · create, for exhibition and publication by walk · listen · create.
Entrants grant the sound clips of their work, for promotional purposes of Sound Walk September, to be broadcast in any media, and the publications of the submitted images, in online or print form. This rights assignment will not imply, for the entrant, in any form whatsoever, loss of copyright of the submitted work.